Estimating Mountain Lion Habitat Connectivity to Guide Wildlife Conservation at The Nature Conservancy’s Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve; University of California Santa Barbara; 2021-2022.

This submission is from a master's group thesis project at The Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and contains the final written report and associated datasets. The graduate student researchers who completed this project include: Meghan Fletcher, Alyssa Kibbe, Grace Kumaishi, Anna Talken, and Nikole Vannest.The California landscape has been fragmented by urban development, infrastructure, and agriculture. Maintaining connectivity between areas of wildlife habitat is important for the viability of many long-ranging species, such as the mountain lion (Puma concolor). Mountain lion populations are highly susceptible to habitat fragmentation, and face reduced access to resources and decreased genetic diversity. This study explores the habitat connectivity between the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve (JLDP), a 24,460 acre protected property owned by The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and neighboring protected areas to identify potential pathways of movement for mountain lions along the Central and Southern California coast. In this project, we: 1) determine regional connectivity and least cost paths between core habitats by modeling suitable mountain lion habitat, 2) estimate mountain lion habitat use and movement on JLDP by performing a site-level suitability and corridor analysis and 3) create a short film focused on highlighting our research, the role that JLDP plays in conservation, and the importance of habitat connectivity. The results of our project show that JLDP contains suitable habitat for mountain lions and may play a positive role in coastal connectivity. When considering the connectivity between JLDP and other regional protected areas, our analyses indicate that urbanized coastal regions act as barriers to mountain lions and contain pinch points that channelize movement. These results can guide TNC in developing management strategies for protecting mountain lions on JLDP and in the surrounding region.Analyses were conducted using ArcGIS, Google Earth Engine, MaxENT, Circuitscape, and Omniscape. The project began in April 2021 and ended in June 2022.

本提交内容来自加州大学圣巴巴拉分校布伦环境科学与管理学院（The Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara）的硕士小组毕业设计项目，包含最终书面报告及关联数据集。参与完成本项目的研究生研究者包括：Meghan Fletcher、Alyssa Kibbe、Grace Kumaishi、Anna Talken与Nikole Vannest。
加州景观已因城市开发、基础设施建设与农业活动而遭到割裂。维持野生生物栖息地间的连通性，对诸多广布物种（如美洲狮（Puma concolor））的存续至关重要。美洲狮种群极易受到栖息地碎片化影响，面临资源获取受限与遗传多样性降低的生存威胁。本研究聚焦杰克与劳拉·丹杰蒙德保护区（Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve, JLDP）——这一由自然保护协会（The Nature Conservancy, TNC）所有的24460英亩保护用地——与周边保护区之间的栖息地连通性，旨在识别美洲狮在加州中南部海岸沿线的潜在移动通道。
本项目开展了三项核心工作：1）通过构建美洲狮适宜栖息地模型，确定核心栖息地间的区域连通性与最小成本路径；2）通过开展场地级适宜性分析与廊道分析，评估JLDP范围内的美洲狮栖息地利用与移动模式；3）制作专题短片，用以展示本研究成果、阐明JLDP在生态保护中的作用，以及栖息地连通性的重要意义。
项目结果显示，JLDP拥有适宜美洲狮生存的栖息地，或可在海岸栖息地连通性方面发挥积极作用。在考量JLDP与其他区域保护区之间的连通性时，分析结果表明，城市化的海岸区域会成为美洲狮移动的阻碍，且存在约束其移动路径的瓶颈区域。上述结果可为自然保护协会制定JLDP及周边区域的美洲狮保护管理策略提供科学指导。
本研究采用的分析工具包括ArcGIS、Google Earth Engine、MaxENT、Circuitscape及Omniscape。项目实施周期为2021年4月至2022年6月。